After several poor years for Jaguar in F1, Ford sold the team to Austrian drink company Red Bull. Ford had been cutting jobs all over the world and did not find it responsible to keep pumping money in a non performing F1 project.

Red Bull owner Mateschitz had all his reasons to buy a Formula One team. At first there have been many drivers sponsored by Red Bull who eventually aim to go to Formula One. The drink company could however not promise anything of that, but with the purchase of a team they are offering young drivers a path from the very beginning to the top of motorsport.

After some discussions between the former management of Jaguar (which had been retained), Mateschitz fired both Purnell and Pitchforth and assigned Arden International Formula 3000 team boss Christian Horner to run the F1 show. RBR started its first season with David Coulthard and a rotating second racing seat shared by Klien and Liuzzi, both Red Bull backed drivers. Shod on Michelin tires and powered by a Cosworth engine, the team put down a better result (by getting more points) in its maiden year than Jaguar was able to in all its years it had been in Formula One.

The second year proved a little troublesome as the Red Bull RB2 was not quite as good as the car from 2005. Although the Ferrari engines were powerful the car seemingly could not extract its full potential. The beginning of the season proved especially difficult as the car suffered cooling issues. As development fell behind, the team were always running after the facts in 2006.

2007 was destined to be a major improvement for the team, and in fact it was performance wise. The Adrian Newey designed RB3 suffered a serious lack of reliability despite the extremely reliable Renault engine. More specifically, the Red Bull RB3 was one of the least reliable cars of 2007 and managed to complete only 74% of the season's race distance.

With again Webber and Coulthard behind the wheel, the Red Bull RB4 failed to improve much in 2008, despite a good first half of the season. While Webber was the more constant driver, it was Coulthard who put in the first podium of the year at the Canadian GP. Although the reliability problems had been resolved, the Renault engine seriously lacked power, leading to Red Bull being unable to keep up with Scuderia Toro Rosso, running the same chassis from Red Bull Technology, but powered by a much better Ferrari engine. Along with Honda, Renault was later on granted to upgrade its engines to equalize the performance.

After David Coulthard announced his retirement from F1 racing, RBR decided to hire Sebastian Vettel who shined all through 2008. Before, the FIA set up the overtaking working group (OWG), which decided a list of major regulation changes that put down the ideal mix for Adrian Newey team to flourish. Had it not been for the diffuser row, the Red Bull RB5 would have been simply unbeatable all the way through the season. However, it turned out differently, and by the time Red Bull designed an effective double deck diffuser, Brawn GP had a massive lead in the championship which was never closed. RBR came in second in the championship easily, and Sebastian Vettel was second in the drivers' standings.

In 2010 the team kept its driver lineup, and early test pace quickly showed that the new Red Bull RB6 was the car to beat. Throughout the year, Vettel and Webber fought closely, and eventually threw away many points, some by technical issues, others by driver mistakes or even collisions between the team mates. Vettel hitting Webber at Turkey pushed matters on the edge, with Mark Webber especially getting frustrated that he felt Vettel was favoured over him within the team.

Despite Vettel having difficulty mid-season, he came back on top towards the end of the year, and the team's fourth 1-2, at Brazil, secured Red Bull Racing's first ever constructor's championship. The result was the beginning of an immensely successful period for the team, as Vettel and Red Bull went on to win both championships again in 2011 and 2012.